Eastern Lariat

After addressing the impact of the Vince McMahon lawsuit on the media and (japanaese)wrestling, STRIGGA and Dylan relax and sit back to give their thoughts on three big shows from this past weekend. First of all, Dragon Gate's Gate of Bayside is in the focus with discussions about Luis Mante as Dream Gate Champion, the Dream Gate & Brave booking as well as Kiyomiya & Alejandro excelling in DG. Championships are also the topic of debate with AJPW's event in Hachioji featuring Nakajima vs. Ashino and Tamura vs. Iwamoto and what possible title matches could be ahead. Shuji Ishikawa leaving is of course another topic that also is connected to DDT, so Dramatic Dream Team's Sweet Dream! 2024 is the final talking point with another look at the champions and the direction of the company at the start of the year.

This special episode of the Eastern Lariat is all about Kazuchika Okada leaving New Japan Pro Wrestling. Join us as we analyse the immediate ramifications of Okada's unprecedented departure, where he could go and what it means or should mean for management and Gedo. While the first ever full time departure of a true ace guy to America caused shock waves through japanese pro wrestling and for its fans overseas, this is also the time to discuss the exciting potential for new talent to rise to the top and change NJPW as we know it.

Welcome to the Eastern Lariat Year End Awards 2023 – your ultimate celebration of excellence in the world of japanese pro wrestling! On this show it's time to honor the best of the best with awards that YOU, the listeners voted for. From heart stopping moments over stunning rookies to MVPs, we looked at every corner of japanese wrestling to crown outstanding achievements. For the first time, we present this show at the beginning of the following year to also potentially include matches and developments in late December. On top of the awards, we introduce the Eastern Lariat Hall of Fame on this show with the first two inductees. Join us in our celebration of japanese pro wrestling in 2023!

With the "Big 3" of japanese pro-wrestling running big shows around New Year's Eve, the Eastern Lariat starts off the new year in proper fashion and very much in the tradition of the show's history. Of course one major talking point is Wrestle Kingdom 18 with Tetsuya Naito's roll call and Championship win, Okda vs. Danielson and all the fallout after New Year Dash, but that's not all. STRIGGA & Dylan go into depth with Pro Wrestling NOAH's New Year show in Ariake that featured the already infamous Kota Ibushi vs. Naomichi Marufuji match, but that also saw some great action. A very emotional point of discussion is AJPW and all the developments since mid December until now with a focus on Katsuhiko Nakajima's title run and his defense against WWE's Charlie Dempsey.

With the final episode of the year we introduce a new concept never heard before on the Eastern Lariat: A prediction show! STRIGGA & Dylan go through all relevant promotions in Japan to run down and rate YOUR and each other's predictions on the newly invented state of the art Predict-O-Meter! Join the fun ride for a look into the crystal pro wrestling ball!

STRIGGA & Dylan return with an impromptu episode after news and cards dropped on a rapid speed at the beginning of the week. Not only did New Japan announce a new Championship, Stardom, NOAH, DRAGONGATE and GLEAT also announced their cards for the upcoming big shows at the end of the year. The Eastern Lariat digests these developments, previews the big matches and while the recording happened, the Tokyo Sports Awards were announced. So this is a jam packed episode putting companies' situations into perspective.

A trifecta of topics marks the return of the Eastern Lariat after a month and STRIGGA & Dylan are jumping right into the final tournament season of the year in Japan. However, at the beginning of the show, they focus their attention on AEW's Continental Classic and compare it to tournaments in Japan. From there this Eastern Lariat episode covers New Japan's World Tag League, All Japan's REAL World Tag League and DDT's D-Ou Grand Prix while there's also a rant about Pro Wrestling NOAH's card for January 2nd sandwiched into the NJPW part of the show. A fun time was had!

This year we see the return of our coverage of the Hall of Fame, said by many experts to be among the most "legit" hall of fames among wrestlers themselves as well as historians and journalists. But more importantly than the inner workings of the Hall of Fame, we're here to discuss the candidates up and down and top to bottom and talk about these historical legends in wrestling. (And sometimes not legends)

Joining Dylan once again is the Emerald FlowShow's Gerard Di Trolio, an active voter in the HOF itself. We end up running down every candidate as well as who he ultimately voted for with some back and forths on a number of people in these regions, which feature the following candidates up for induction:

HISTORICAL PERFORMERS ERA (eight maximum)

Ole Anderson

Bob Armstrong

Tully Blanchard & Arn Anderson w/J.J. Dillon

Jack & Jerry Brisco

British Bulldogs (Dynamite Kid & Davey Boy Smith)

June Byers

Wild Bull Curry

Junkyard Dog

Cowboy Bob Ellis

Pampero Firpo

Black Gordman & Great Goliath

Archie "Mongolian Stomper" Gouldie

Hart Foundation (Bret Hart & Jim Neidhart)

Sputnik Monroe

Dusty Rhodes & Dick Murdoch

Argentina Rocca & Miguel Perez

Johnny Rougeau

Iron Sheik

Tiger Jeet Singh

Sgt. Slaughter

Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood

Mad Dog & Butcher Vachon

Von Brauners & Saul Weingeroff

Kevin & Kerry & David Von Erich

MODERN PERFORMERS IN U.S/CANADA (five maximum)

Mark & Jay Briscoe

Young Bucks

Edge

Bill Goldberg

Matt & Jeff Hardy

Becky Lynch

Jon Moxley

Kevin Nash & Scott Hall

Paul Orndorff

Randy Orton

Seth Rollins

C.M. Punk

Roman Reigns

Trish Stratus

Rick & Scott Steiner

JAPAN (three maximum)

The Beauty Pair (Jackie Sato & Maki Ueda)

Cima

Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan

Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Hayabusa

Antonio Inoki & Seiji Sakaguchi

Tomohiro Ishii

Meiko Satomura

Shingo Takagi

Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada

MEXICO (three maximum)

Angel Blanco & Dr.Wagner

Sangre Chicana

Los Hermanos Dinamita (Cien Caras & Mascara Ano 2000 & Universo 2000)

Dorrell Dixon

Pirata Morgan

Blue Panther

El Hijo del Santo & Octagon

La Parka AAA

Huracan Ramirez

EUROPE/AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND/PACIFIC ISLANDS/AFRICA (four maximum)

Spyros Arion

Big Daddy

Dominic DeNucci

Billy Joyce

George Kidd

Killer Karl Kox

Mike Marino

Kendo Nagasaki

Jackie Pallo

The Royal Brothers (Bert Royal & Vic Faulkner)

Johnny Saint

Adrian Street

Jose Tarres

Otto Wanz

NON-WRESTLERS (six maximum)

Dave Brown (U.S. & Canada modern)

Bobby Bruns (Japan)

Bob Caudle (U.S. & Canada historical)

Bobby Davis (U.S. & Canada historical)

Joe Higuchi (Japan)

Jim Johnston (U.S. & Canada modern)

Larry Matysik (U.S.& Canada historical)

Rossy Ogawa (Japan)

Reggie Parks (U.S. & Canada modern)

Morris Sigel (U.S. & Canada historical)

Tony Schiavone (U.S. & Canada modern)

George Scott (U.S. & Canada historical)

Sanshiro Takagi (Japan)

Mike Tenay (U.S. & Canada modern)

Ted Turner (U.S. & Canada modern)

Roy Welch (U.S. & Canada historical)

Stanley Weston (U.S. & Canada historical)

Grand Wizard (U.S & Canada historical)

James Melby (U.S & Canada historical)

And we finish off by going over the people that have been talked about and we suggested ourselves to be put on the ballot on 2024!

For more coverage of Japanese wrestling, and wrestling past and present please check out our Patreon for literally 1000s of hours of audio and written content as well: patreon.com/easternlariat

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Check out Gerard as well and give a listen to his show, the Emerald FlowShow!

https://www.twitter.com/GerardDiTrolio

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Special thanks to Souichi Sakagami & Mikado Miyabi for the OFFICIAL Eastern Lariat theme song: "Rainy Day" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3yWeS1ILdE

After a huge weekend of Pro Wrestling in Japan there were a lot of talking points to get to so the Eastern Lariat returns with a look at New Japan Pro Wrestling, All Japan Pro Wrestling, Pro Wrestlig NOAH and DRAGONGATE. NJPW's Power Struggle on one hand is somewhat of a lame duck show in the calendar year of New Japan, but on the other hand it produced great and unique matches. Unique was Katsuhiko Nakajima's landing in All Japan, winning the Triple Crown as he walked in. STRIGGA & Dylan discuss the way the match came about, the action itself and of course the future implications for Nakajima, former champion Aoyagi and the first challenger Kento Miyahara. As Aoyagi's reign ended, Madoka Kikuta's reign as Open The Dream Gate Champion in DRAGONGATE surprisingly continued so the final topic of the show involves discussions about BIGBOSS Shimizu losing yet again and in which way stables could be shaken up in the world of DG.

After a brief hiatus the Eastern Lariat returns to catch up on the big japanese promotions and their most recent as well as coming up events. First, STRIGGA & Dylan tackle New Japan's Destruction in Ryogoku and Royal Quest III as well as their road to Wrestle Kingdom and if the show will be able to draw a bigger crowd than Muto's retirement. Someone who draws a lot of attention these days is Katushiko Nakajima so the following topics include his final Korakuen match for NOAH as well his appearance on AJPW's Korakuen show the day thereafter. Amidst all the dicussions about NOAH & All Japan, STRIGGA & Dylan also discuss the sensitive topic of Kinya Okada & Yasutaka Yano's exit from Pro Wrestling NOAH, the allegations against them and pro-wrestling's terrible reaction to it. The shows ends with a look at DDT's Korakuen, a brief preview of their Sumo Hall show and a look at DRAGONGATE's upcoming show in Osaka.